It's Time to Tell MGM Resorts It Will No Longer Receive My Money

Friends, sometimes a company reveals itself to be such a rotten neighbor, so devoid of generosity and mutual care, and so astonishingly grotesque in action that you have to decide not to give them your money anymore.

For me, MGM Resorts International has crossed that line. I won't spend my money at MGM's hotels anymore.

This week, says the Los Angeles Times, victims of last autumn's shooting massacre have been receiving notices. “A lawsuit has been filed against you,” the notices say.

MGM is suing the survivors of the October 1 shooting.

"It feels like bullets flying at my head right now," said one survivor of MGM's filings.    

Why on earth would MGM Resorts International sue people who were victims of a shooting on MGM's property and in MGM's care? It should be the other way around. But MGM Resorts International is seeking to claim immunity under a federal law, passed following September 11, 2001, that was designed to shield corporations from lawsuits after terrorist attacks.

MGM doesn't want money from the victims—although in addition to the re-triggered PTSD, many of them may very well end up paying out of pocket to defend themselves against the suit. Rather, MGM wants to route the issue to a favorable judge who would designate the shooting as a terrorist attack, and it hopes the move will sweep away the more than 2,500 lawsuits filed against the company. (So far, the FBI has not found any motive for the massacre.) Experts said this was the first time such a lawsuit had ever been filed under the law.

In countering the understandable backlash, MGM has offered several spins. It's only trying to speed up the outcome for the victims, it claimed one day, and the next day, MGM tried saying that victims could simply obtain compensation from the government (i.e., taxpayers) once MGM is off the hook.

It's a maneuver of legal jujitsu that could only be dreamed up by a lawyer. These people barely survived the worst moment of their lives after hundreds of people were shot from a suite in an MGM Resorts hotel—the Mandalay Bay. After the attack, the company even allowed victims and families to stay for free for a few days. At the time, on my WABC radio show, I praised MGM for doing that. Now I wonder if that was just a hollow PR stunt. 

Can you imagine the meeting at MGM Resorts International where executives sat around a big table and decided to sue the the people who were shot on their property, all to save a buck? This is not a company on the precipice of insolvency, by the way, but one that enjoyed a net revenue of $10.8 billion in the last fiscal year.

This sort of behavior is the worst side of corporate America, and it's revolting enough to strike this company off the list for anyone who would rather live in a kinder nation. 

This is the act of a company that deserves to be despised. This is not the kind of action that should be rewarded in these divisive and dark times, when we all need more help from our fellow citizens, not less.

Does this sound like the action of a "hospitality" company to you?

But it's not the first damage that MGM Resorts has done.

MGM's callous, money-first animus has been making Las Vegas a worse place for a few years now. You see, MGM Resorts doesn't just own the MGM. It's behind a slew of Las Vegas' other big names, including more than a dozen casino/hotels along the Strip—the Bellagio and the Mirage among them. And MGM has been using its market leverage to fundamentally undermine the experience of a Las Vegas vacation and make it cost drastically more for you.

MGM was among the first Vegas hotels to popularize resort fees. Resort fees, which enable a hotel to falsely advertise that a room will cost much less than it actually does, thus falsely undercutting honest competition, are illegal in many countries. But not in Las Vegas. 

Resort fees are another legal scam. Many of MGM's Las Vegas properties sneak in as much as $39 more per night for every room. At some of the cheaper properties, like Excalibur, the hidden $32 fee can actually be more than the advertised room rate, which a few weeks ago was $29. That's not just bonkers—it's predatory. It may not be illegal (yet), but it shows what they think of you, the customer.

Is that what a healthy hospitality company does? Well, it's how MGM does things.

MGM Resorts was also at the forefront of charging customers for parking in Las Vegas. For the better part of a century, Las Vegas was famous for not charging fees for self-parking, which meant families of all incomes could easily visit the casinos, spend some money, and have a good time.

But MGM ruined that, too. In 2016, it was the first to bring in steep parking fees, something that encouraged other hotels to follow suit. The company even said it would sell your spot to someone else for a higher price even if you were staying overnight. (Is that hospitality?) That all may indeed have been their right, but it poisoned Las Vegas' stature as an affordable destination. 

It is all too clear what MGM Resorts International thinks of its customers. It's also clear that it doesn't deserve to have any. As customers and citizens, we must force corporations to recognize the behavior that we expect from the big players in a civilized society.

I will not support MGM Resorts International because it does not support us. 

Here are MGM Resort International's Las Vegas properties so you can take your business to a kinder company, too. Fortunately, in Las Vegas, there are plenty of alternatives.

Bellagio Las Vegas